Pics: Accidents in India

This is a discussion on Pics: Accidents in India within Road Safety, part of the Team-BHP category; Indeed it is hard to allocate blame, but the only excuse for hitting a crossing pedestrian is that they do ...

Indeed it is hard to allocate blame, but the only excuse for hitting a crossing pedestrian is that they do so right in front of the vehicle when it is already impossible to stop or avoid them.

Bikers in Mumbai, I have no clue. here, many of them stop for nobody, not even each other. I suspect they are not even aware of what happens if they hit a person. I so often see bikers drive straight through a group of road crossers, eyes ahead, oblivious. Even when police have stopped the traffic.

Similarly, when the media says, "Vehicle rammed two-wheeler," I suspect that the missing bit is "... as it entered that impossible-to-stop zone," eg crossed straight in front, or attempted to get through a closing gap.

Me & the better half are on the scooter, riding back from the Metro station. The road we usually take has a couple of blind sweeping turns with side roads branching off (for those familiar with the area, Kerekodi road from the NICE PESIT junction).

We're ambling along, when I hear a fast approaching biker before I see him. I comment to the better half, "the idiot is going to kill himself or someone else if they pop out of one of these side roads".

I haven't even finished saying it before a kid on a bicycle zips across my path, misses the biker by a whisker but loses balance and crashes on the opposite side of the road in a soft area.

Nothing happened, I managed to stop and the speeding biker somehow missed the little one, but it could've easily led to a badly injured or dead kid give or take a few inches. I don't blame the kid, riding downhill on a bicycle is one of childhood's joys, but it could've all gone horribly wrong in an instant, and no amount of apportioning blame would undo it.

Last edited by Chetan_Rao : 8th January 2018 at 17:48.
Reason: Grammar and rephrasing

Indeed it is hard to allocate blame, but the only excuse for hitting a crossing pedestrian is that they do so right in front of the vehicle when it is already impossible to stop or avoid them.

Bikers in Mumbai, I have no clue. here, many of them stop for nobody, not even each other. I suspect they are not even aware of what happens if they hit a person. I so often see bikers drive straight through a group of road crossers, eyes ahead, oblivious. Even when police have stopped the traffic.

Similarly, when the media says, "Vehicle rammed two-wheeler," I suspect that the missing bit is "... as it entered that impossible-to-stop zone," eg crossed straight in front, or attempted to get through a closing gap.

In general, I believe Mumbai's drivers and bikers are a co-operative sort. If they can catch sight of you, they adjust their speed a bit to either pass before you intersect, or slow down slightly. Mumbai is one of the few places where if you make eye contact with the biker or driver, you can cross safely. In Delhi, they do not even make eye contact!

But I have been on all sides of this. Pedestrian, biker and later driver. When any of the parties take the others for granted, then its pure chance afterwards.

The place where the accident took place - Worli seaface - is a place where people speed up. Pedestrians know this, and are extra careful. Almost nobody crosses at the zebra, but run across. Make a mistake then, and this is what you get.

I am sorry to say but bikers in Mumbai are absolutely atrocious for most part. They have scant regard for any sort of traffic rules and there are a number of them who drive very recklessly on fast roads. You'll commonly find them in particular on stretches like Worli sea face, Carter Road, Marine drive and JJ in particular. I'd be very surprised if the vast majority of the blame wasn't with the biker in such a case.

I am sorry to say but bikers in Mumbai are absolutely atrocious for most part. They have scant regard for any sort of traffic rules and there are a number of them who drive very recklessly on fast roads.

They are driving me up the wall here in Bangalore as well.. the way they criss-cross, deliberately come into one's path, climb over small medians and cross the road, push larger vehicles to the side is appalling.. however what is much worse is when the roads are free and specifically if the roads are highways.. that is when their speeds are much greater and as a result, same with the chances of an accident.

Every incident I've seen that involved a biker - the biker was at fault. Today a bus was turning into a road and quite slowly so.. any half-experienced rider will know to keep a distance from the bus sides when it is turning but a rider didn't and as a result the bus brushed up against the sides and both the bike and the rider fell.. this was quite a slow movement hence nothing much happened, only wish riders actually paid attention to what happens to their sides and front before moving, some have the reflexes and foresight of a 100 year old tortoise.

Saw this yesterday on NECE road, Bangalore after the Kanankapura road junction towards EC. No idea how it happened, but the Traveller looked in really bad shape. it looked like one of the many company cabs that ply this route. So I guess it must have happened in the wee hours while taking people to their workplace. No idea of any injuries
While the rear was bad, the front view of the Traveller was really bad. Almost everybody overtake from the leftmost lane on this road. I guess this was one such move but miscalculated terribly.

First I saw the truck. Me: "Not so surprising"

Then saw the Traveller. Me:"Oh! two vehicles!"

Then I saw the truck has hit a boulder. Me: "Poor guy, hope no one is injured"

Lastly I saw the Traveller. Me: "Oh man! that is really a bad crash; hope there are no casualties"

My guess is that the truck was either already parked on the left or he suddenly stopped.
The Traveller guy didn't see it while overtaking or couldn't brake in time whichever was the case.
Because of this, the Traveller hit the truck from the rear. The high impact pushed the truck to the drain on the left and into the boulders.
then the Traveller also lost countrol and went a little further before falling onto the left into the drain and into the boulders.

I had seen this yesterday morning as for a change I ended up taking NICE for my onward journey too.

The LCV in that position ahead of the barricade was something very normal and a daily routine till I went past it and noticed the Force Traveller lying by the side of the road resting on the boulder. Upon crossing this further and checking in the ORVM, realised the actual damage to the co-passenger side compartment of the Force Traveller !

I got this on Face Book from a page called Mettupalayam. No idea when it happened probably recently. It looks bad, hope the cabin crew survived. The pit appears very deep and looks like no protection was provided or else the driver nodded off in the early morning hours.

In general, I believe Mumbai's drivers and bikers are a co-operative sort. If they can catch sight of you, they adjust their speed a bit to either pass before you intersect, or slow down slightly. Mumbai is one of the few places where if you make eye contact with the biker or driver, you can cross safely. In Delhi, they do not even make eye contact!

The place where the accident took place - Worli seaface - is a place where people speed up. Pedestrians know this, and are extra careful. Almost nobody crosses at the zebra, but run across. Make a mistake then, and this is what you get.

Trust me, this is fast changing here.
Bikers are always in a rush - never wait, never slow down. I've become extra cautious riding round bikers.

Worli Seaface often sees a lot of bikers late at night, a friend recently met with an accident there when a biker cut across the divider (coming the wrong way), and onto her lane at the Nature's basket/sea face junction.

They're a menace as Axe rightly said.

A couple other friends have had their cars smashed by bikers as well - and when I mean smashed, I mean the biker physically banged up the car with his helmet.
Best bit - it was the biker's fault! Sadly our legal & news system will always give right to the biker, even against a pedestrian!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axe77

You'll commonly find them in particular on stretches like Worli sea face, Carter Road, Marine drive and JJ in particular.

Add Reclamation on the WEH to your list. This is their new assembly point owing to all the nakas in town.

Saw this yesterday on NECE road, Bangalore after the Kanankapura road junction towards EC. No idea how it happened, but the Traveller looked in really bad shape.

My guess is that the truck was either already parked on the left or he suddenly stopped.

The Traveller guy didn't see it while overtaking or couldn't brake in time whichever was the case.

Because of this, the Traveller hit the truck from the rear. The high impact pushed the truck to the drain on the left and into the boulders.
then the Traveller also lost control and went a little further before falling onto the left into the drain and into the boulders.

Trucks never give way for vehicles to overtake from the right that too on NICE Road. Even a Tata Ace wants to be on the right lane, everyone blames Police for not doing this and that. What have NICE authorities done about this known menace of truck drivers. My view is that the TT was tail gating the truck on the middle lane before crashing into the truck, reason - damage of co-passenger side of TT, damage to the rear door of truck on RHS and body line of TT is intact at the top.

I came across this news article a couple of days back. It really shows the importance of wearing seat belts, and driving a car with air bags. The car also performed per its design vis-a-vis the crumple zones and superior build.

Trucks never give way for vehicles to overtake from the right that too on NICE Road...

Trucks hog the right most lane because:
1. the left lane(s) is/are quite like a playground for local traffic that gets on and off without any indication and catching highway traffic by surprise
2. there is a high chance of some nincompoop driving/riding against the traffic, and won't be ready to yield to a truck (most of the times, with an out-of-state registration)
3. getting a few silent curses is far better than having to lose time avoiding 1 & 2 above, so they reach their destination without a lot of delay
4. losing momentum and then having to accelerate to their cruising speed burns more fuel (compare the percentage changes in FE between 4kmpl & 3.5kmpl, and also between 14kmpl & 13kmpl - drop in FE caused by a few extra brake-accelerate operations in a petrol sedan) and takes a hit on their operational economics drastically, so they try everything they can to maintain a constant speed